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Horus The Initiate Operetta – Production Team
Meet The Production Team
Creator and Producer: Moustafa Gadalla
Artistic Director: Manon Bastardie
“I started dancing at the age of 4 and joined the National Superior dance school of Marseille at 13, where I studied there for three years before joining the VM Ballet in Toulouse. In 2015, I obtained my first contract with the National Ballet of Marseille under the direction of Emio Greco and Peter Scholten. I will dance there for two years and will be able to interpret the roles of corps de ballet and soloist in the creations of Emio Greco and Jeroen Verbruggen (the corps du ballet national de Marseille, extremalism, momentum, bolero, pointless). Then, I decided to join the Compagnie Illicite Bayonne and had the opportunity to collaborate with many international choreographers such as Nils Christ, Douglas Lee, Miguel Ramalho and Fabio Lopez. I will also dance in star galas alongside the principal dancers of major European companies. In September 2020, after months of confinement and reflection but also after 6 years traveling the stages of France and all of Europe, I decided to put aside my career as a dancer, already very fulfilled, to devote myself to the choreography.
Concerned about my art, I want above all to give it back its value. Today, dance is too little known for its qualities of expression and sharing. With choreographic creations I want to show the public that in these difficult times our society is going through, unity remains the best way forward. It is still possible to work together thanks to different skills, different backgrounds and different careers. Multidisciplinarity is our best ally in advancing the artistic and cultural world. My wish is also to restore culture and its means of communication so the latter allows encounters, unity, harmony with the world around us. I am part of a coalition process for the dance community in all its genres.
In my eyes, dance is not only movement or aesthetics, dance is also about expressing oneself, giving emotions. She brings to choreographers an infinite work around the body since each dancer is different and each movement projects a different sensibility. To be a choreographer is therefore to be in search of renewal through a tool offering an inexhaustible range of research.
My main mission is then to offer emotions, to transmit them but also to receive them since being a choreographer means sharing with your dancers but also with your audience what you want to express. As a choreographer, today I want to be able to choreograph, stage, but above all transcribe stories, moments of life. For me, it is important to give myself new challenges and not to stay in an “easy” or at least comfortable daily routine, out of habit. I am a person who needs renewal, who is ready to take up many challenges, always in accordance with my values. I never embark on a project without knowing the details, and without being sure of being able to live up to it. I think that also makes me a reliable person and artistic director.”
Assistant Artistic Director : Elodie Rabier
“I started ballet class at the age of 6 , it became more serious for me at 14 when I entered Ecole Nationale Superieure de Marseille .The more I was dancing the more I liked it, i was not good at exposing my feelings and emotions and I think dancing was my way to do it, it seems to be the only way to really be myself, as well in telling a story in a ballet of repertoire or through abstracts works and letting my body express itself. Even if I just dance occasionally now that I’m a teacher, it’s always the same pleasure and i hope I can bring it to all my students.”
Isis performed by Emma Jones
“My name is Emma Jones I am 24 years old I grew up in Glasgow, Scotland. I started ballet when I was 4 years old with the Linda Lowry School of ballet and although it did not come naturally to me at first I loved the challenge and discipline of it. Throughout my childhood I continued ballet then started doing some tap and jazz. I later joined Scottish Ballet Senior Associates Program where I trained every Saturday for 3 years. When I was 14 I decided I wanted to pursue dance as a career and in 2015 got accepted to Kate Simmons Dance Ltd, where I trained for 4 years in classical and contemporary as well as many other styles. I was also given the opportunity to tour with the Allegrodance Touring Company. After graduating from school I trained with Matrix Mandala Dance Company in Italy specialising in contemporary dance. In 2020 I was lucky enough to be accepted into the B&M2 Junior Compagnie. I then worked with Edinburgh Festival Ballet under the direction Peter Schaufuss in their 2021 tour of the Nutcracker in Denmark as well as in there production of Hamlet in the Edinburgh Fringe. In September 2022, I joined the B&M Compagnie where I am very grateful I get to do what I love everyday.
Dance for me has always been so important, I was a very shy child and dance gave me a way to express myself and helped me become more confident. When I am on stage I feel free, no matter how I am feeling, when I am performing I am happy. Any emotion or feeling in life I use in my performance giving me a release and allowing me to communicate the emotions.
All the hard work and time was worth it, now I just get to enjoy it.
I think one of the most beautiful things about dance is that you can feel a connection and communicate with anyone through dance. I have experienced this personally from living in Italy and France where I did not understand or speak the language but could use dance to build relationships with the other dancers. No matter where in the world you are or where you are from you can tell a story though dance and connect with the audience.”
Phillippine Duval
“My name is Phillippine Duval and I am 17 years old. I started dancing at the age of 5, in a school near my home (Véronique Danse), so I practiced classical dance, jazz, contemporary, tap and hip-hop. In 2019, I joined the School of Ballet De Biarritz where I was also able to discover the Graham style and the pas de deux. I am continuing my journey by joining the B&M2 Junior Compagnie this year. For me, dance means freedom of expression for everyone. It is also a certain way of growing, observing and learning different things. Dancing also means the fact that everyone can adopt a choreography with their experience or even their story.”
Kimberley Dorrzapf
“My name is Kimberley Dorrzapf, I was born in England, my mother is French and my father German, I am 22 years old, I started classical dance at the age of 5 then I studied modern dance in England. I dreamed of being o
n stage after attending a performance by the Royal Ballet’s Bayadère. I went to Paris when I was 19 for a pre-professional classical and contemporary dance training for 3 years. I specialized in the style of Balanchine and I discovered more the neoclassical side of the dance and the technique of Graham which I love.
Now I am in Manon Bastardie’s B&M2 junior company where I continue to develop as a dancer and am grateful for these magical stage experiences and innovative choreographies.
I find that dancing is the most beautiful way to communicate. It can connect us all. Artistic expression in all its forms connects our humanity and allows us to express all our facets. I like to convey strong emotions and messages, give of myself and radiate outside to impact the public.”
Grace Jenner
“I was born in the south of England in 1998 and was drawn to dance from a very young age. I began dancing aged 3 at the Hilary Marston School of Ballet and Haslemere Performing Arts, and later joined the London Studio Centre Associates where I studied a range of dance styles. In 2016 I chose to focus on classical and contemporary dance and moved to Scotland to study at Ballet West for 3 years, where I obtained a BA (Hons) degree (1st Class) and had the opportunity to tour Scotland with full length ballet productions.
Following this, I spent one year training independently in London, before moving to France in September 2020 to join the B&M2 Junior Company. I was then delighted to join the B&M Company as a professional dancer in February 2022.
As a young dancer I was drawn to the beauty of dance and found performing allowed me to be confident in a way I was not outside of dance. As I grew up I discovered how dance enables me to express my emotions better than I can in words, and the ability to share that with an audience. I find it amazing how dance transcends languages and allows us to connect with an audience in any place across the world. This is one of many reasons why I enjoy working in the B&M Company so much as the emotions of the piece are so deeply intertwined with the choreography. Throughout my life dance has been a constant safe place, through both good times and bad, and allows me to both understand the world around me and escape from it. My hope is that through performance I am able to provide this same feeling to the audience.”
Clémence Bonnemaison
“I started ballet dancing when I was 3 years old. The dance pleases me a lot, I started flamenco in addition to classical dance at the age of 7 until I was 14 years old. I quit flamenco to get into modern jazz. In 2017, I went to Bordeaux in sport Etude danse where I still have classical dance and modern Jazz but also contemporary. At the end of my schooling, I joined Manon Bastardie’s B&M2 junior company. I then went to Madrid for a year with Elephant In The Black Box to return in September 2021 to the B&M2 junior company.
Since September 2022 I have the status of trainee in the B&M company of Manon Bastardie.
Dance for me is therapy, it’s my best means of expression, it allows me to release my positive and negative feelings, dance reflects my deepest emotions, it’s a real outlet, in addition to being my greatest passion”
Ilona Dumas
“I started dancing at the age of 3, I started with classical dance at the SO Danse academy in Soulac-sur-mer, and around the age of 6 I started modern jazz.
From 2016 to 2018 I entered sports study dance to begin devoting myself to my dream of becoming a professional dancer then took lessons in addition to training at Christophe Nicitta’s dance school.
From 2019 to 2020 I join the sport-study dance program at the Vanessa Feuillatte academy in Bordeaux with classes in classical, contemporary, history of dance, pilates and pointes.
In 2022 I join two schools, the Maïte Langevin school and the Jude Mikhlav Ballet Academy school with classical and contemporary.
At the age of 18 I joined the B&M junior company and received my EAT in contemporary dance.
In 2023, I will continue a year in a junior company to improve myself, and have a lot more experience as I then have the chance to participate in many shows with the company such as the festival du temps de la danse in Biarritz, the Cahors dance festival and perform on stage.
And since I was 3 years old now, I have been able to regularly participate in dance workshops with international teachers and choreographers.“
Nabar Martinez
“Born in Pamplona and specially trained in classical and contemporary dance at the Paula Gutierrez Dance School (Pamplona), Navarre Dance School (Pamplona) and Professional Dance Conservatory of Riba-Roja del Túria (Valencia). In 2018 he began his career as a dancer at Elephant in the Black Box Company (Madrid) where he performed pieces by different choreographers, including “Nichts” by Marco Goecke, “Romeo & Juliet” and “Fado Do Retorno” by Jean-Philippe Dury, “SIUK” by Francesco Vecchione and “1936” by Marco Blazquez. In 2020 he joined the Ballet Contemporani de Catalunya (Barcelona), where he worked with Miquel G. Font and danced pieces such as “Xoc Anti Tempo”, “Focs de Sant Joan” and “Plancton”. This season he worked with Iratxe Ansa and Igor Bacovich as a dancer for the opera “La Sonnambula” (Teatro Real, Madrid). He also worked with the Ogmia company (Madrid) interpreting “Mother Tongue” by Eduardo Vallejo Pinto. He also learned Basque dance at school and later his father, himself a dancer in several Basque dance groups, passed on his knowledge to him. What is dance for me? When I was a kid dancing was a hobby for me, it was a cool thing I did after school. It was not until adolescence that my relationship to dance changed: like many young people my age, I started going dancing with my friends in the evenings. This is where I felt something very special, a huge connection with sound and space. I discovered there the game of improvisation by following the rhythms, noises, sensations… It is undoubtedly this stage of my life, which at first seemed banal, which lit the flame of my passion for dance. . It was therefore at the age of 18 that I made the decision to make this passion my profession and after a few years of training, I began to work professionally little by little. During this period dance had different meanings for me: play, sensation, expression, work, repetition, instinct, challenge, relationship, learning, style, aesthetics, art… I experienced dance as a cocktail of all these values mixed with different condensations. To this day, my relationship with dance is defined by a variable combination of many components, an alloy which, with several materials, solidifies, melts, evaporates and sublimates. ”
Allan Gereaud (Anubis)
“When I was a child, I started practicing dance in an early music and dance class at the Vitrolles municipal school. During the shows where all the years were mixed, the teenage dancers were on stage with us, the classical dance of the girls on pointe fascinated me.
But my parents didn’t necessarily want to direct me towards dance, but it was an art that didn’t leave me indifferent. My family on my dad’s side was the brass band of our village which I was not necessarily familiar with but which was very famous. My aunt, for whom I have great affection and who was captain of the majorettes of the marching band, taught me the passion for dancing during our family celebrations. When I arrived in 6th grade at college I made the decision to leave the swimming pool to sign up for a jazz dance class and that was a revelation.
I want to practice this art every day and I want to perform all the time.
It becomes my world, my universe, my sensitivity and I feel stronger every day thanks to this art which enriches me. In addition to my jazz classes, I want to discover other dance styles.
I play ragga and hip-hop, I’m going to take other modern jazz lessons in other schools,
I do a few short classical lessons. Getting through my first year of high school, the school and the teacher that I appreciated so much during these middle school years is no longer enough for me, I want to discover more things.
With my family, we went in search of a specific place where I could flourish while devoting myself to dance, I joined the Nice Conservatory for my junior year where I will stay two years with the class TMD. I am training in contemporary classes at the conservatory. I will also take additional classes at the Mad School dance and jazz school.
During my second year, there was the quite difficult Covid year but I continued to dance on the balcony at my parents’ house and following the rather abrupt end of the year I obtained my DEC comptemporain and my TMD tray. The following year my teacher advised me to go to CAFDanse to continue my training.
I am integrating the EAT preparation in jazz and classical and the stage training in which I was able to meet certain choreographers Christine Hasside and Satoshi Kudo.
I met teachers and dancers from all walks of life, but I wanted to find much more in-depth work with my body because I had never practiced a lot of classical.
I made the decision to audition for the Rosella Hightower school where I was accepted.
This school allowed me to meet new choreographers Jean-Christophe Maillot, Hervé Khoubi, Christophe Garcia. My dances in this school took on another dimension, it became more professional, more intellectual, it had a rather stressful side because I had never had this rigor and this precision, imposed but I saw myself growing and I was proud to see what I could become.
I had the chance to choreograph for the carte blanche, it was an experience that I loved.
I obtained but UV music anatomy during my year in Cannes.
Then I auditioned for a year of apprenticeship at the Marseille ballet, the Preljocage ballet and the Avignon ballet. I was accepted into the Avignon ballet where I participated in the creations of Emilio Calcagno the director, a piece by Édouard Hue and also a piece by Hervé Khoubi.
We went on tour abroad and we had a great experience at the Avignon festival!
My contract is over and I am auditioning for intermittent projects and to join a company.
I am currently at the Marseille Opera to do The Merry Widow, an operetta in which we do theatrical dance figuration and a French cancan at the end of the operetta.“
Folke HOGMAN (Thot)
“Born in Sweden 2002 Folke started dancing at 10 years old with the royal Swedish Ballet School, studying with them for 6 years he completed his education at the Palucca Hochshule für Tanz in Dresden. After his graduation he joined the Bern Ballett of Switzerland on a one year apprenticeship, after which he moved to the Hague to dance with De Dutch Don’t Dance Division for a year and a half.”
“Born in Corato on 12/08/1997, I immediately undertook the study of classical and modern dance, then perfecting myself over the years also in contemporary dance in a Young company “Agora Coaching Project” directed by Michele Merola.
Subsequently I joined the company “MM Contemporary Dance Company” directed by Michele Merola with whom I worked for 2 years based in Reggio Emilia. Other later works and projects were born in collaboration with Balich Wonder Studio, a world-renowned agency, for the creation of shows and major events in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Another project and work was born in collaboration with Expo 2020 in Dubai in which I took part in several shows with a lot of choreographers.
I collaborated with “Petranura Danza” a contemporary dance company based in Italy (Sicily) directed by Salvatore Romania during the summer season 2023.”
“Originally from Bordeaux, Mattéo Trutat began jazz dancing at the age of 8. After studying at a conservatory, he joined the Ballet Junior de Genève in 2017. During these three years of training, he will have the opportunity to approach the work of choreographers such as Ambra Senatore, Hofesh Schechter, Olivier Dubois, Alexander Ekman , Maguy Marin…
In 2021, after a short stint at the Cannes Jeune Ballet, Mattéo became an apprentice at the Preljocaj Ballet in Aix-en-Provence for a season.
It is in 2022 that Mattéo begins his freelance activities, he will be an interpreter for Michel Kelemenis, Alessio Maria Romano and Damien Jalet.
In parallel with his career as a performer, Mattéo is developing his first choreographic project. Created in 2020 with Lisa Laurent, her duo Pas de Deux, was programmed and danced at different festivals in Switzerland and Germany.”
Arnaud BASTARDIE (video)
“I am now 31 years old: photography as well as video entered my life thanks to the desire to keep track of my progress in surfing, to film Christel, the Love of my life, and Titus, the horse of his life.
Our life has gradually been filled with short moments captured and viewed endlessly: this is what I would like to share today while working with you.
The work I do, and the skills acquired are the fruit of meetings, tests and many doubts. Like a journey, like a world tour, life teaches me to be flexible without losing my deep convictions, to adapt to move forward and always offer the best of myself, for the common good, to always love more what surrounds me and capture the essence of our existence: the natural.
No matter the project, no matter the state of progress of your idea: we will find the common VISION that will make this moment unique.”
Christianne BASTIEN (Costume designer)
Aitz AMILIBIA (Technician)
Stéphane BELLOCQ (Photographer)
